The Best of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Favorite Recipes from BreadIn5

by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoë François, Andrew Zimmern (Foreword)

From Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Magnolia Network's Zoë François, authors of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series, comes a collection of all time favorite recipes and techniques.Dive headfirst into the gratifying world of homemade bread with The Best of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.Transcending merely a recipe book, this baking odyssey promises to be your constant companion, serving up the 80 most coveted recipes hand-picked from the prestigious “Bread in Five” series. From rich loaves enriched with eggs and butter to healthful whole grain recipes, versatile flatbreads, and even gluten-free options, this collection unravels an assortment of favorites.In addition to old favorites, the book pulls in a few new tricks, tips, and techniques that Jeff and Zoë have learned along the way. With their revolutionary stored-dough technique—along with color and instructional black-and-white photographs—readers can have stunning, delicious bread on day one. The Best of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day will make everyone a baker—with only five minutes a day of active preparation time.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 12, 2021

About the author

Jeff Hertzberg is a physician with 20 years of experience in health care as a practitioner, consultant, & faculty member at the University of Minnesota Medical School. His interests in baking & preventive health sparked a quest to apply the techniques of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to healthier ingredients. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife & two daughters.

--from the author's website

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jeffhe...

Reviews

[Tikidoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to get this book after visiting an elderly Aunt over the Holidays. She has developed a severe case of celiac disease. Her diet is very restricted, so she often misses meals with her husband, and she is becoming very thin. It seems so odd to me that we are developing allergies to wheat, when wheat literally changed the course of human history. We stopped being nomadic hunter gatherers in favor of agrarian communities in order to farm wheat, tens of thousands of years ago. So what is going on now? I suspect it has something to do with gmos and pesticides. Organic bread is not commonly available, even in specialty stores. So I decided to try my hand at making it myself. And the author, who is a doctor, actually notes that as one of the reasons he developed these recipes, too.

So far, I have worked my way through several of the bread recipes and the pork roast recipe. The bread recipes are fast and easy to make, requiring nothing more than what is commonly available in grocery stores nationwide. I find it super fast and easy to make the recipes using my scale. Having to measure out ingredients would slow the process down quite a bit. I also use a Kitchenaid stand mixer for mixing, although one is not required.

I made the master recipe first as instructed. It was a good basic recipe. The website sallysbakingaddiction.com has a no knead artisan bread recipe available, which is basically the same as the master recipe. I really liked the Broa recipe, which is Portuguese corn bread. It’s not like American Southern cornbread, it is more like an artisan bread with a cornmeal inclusion. There is a recipe for Spicy Pork Buns that uses the Broa. I really recommend trying it. So good! I made it in my crockpot rather than stove top for ease. I also made the olive oil bread recipe and used it as pizza dough. My daughter thinks it’s the best margherita pizza ever. I want to try the peasant loaf and rye bread. King Arthur has a good oat recipe online, and sallysbakingaddiction has other no knead options, like cranberry bread and seeded bread.

These no knead breads are just the thing to add a new kick to home meals. But there are few caveats. There is rather a learning curve on how to handle the dough and shape it quick and light enough to not disturb the rise/crumb texture. The loaf sizes suggested in the book are quite a bit smaller than anything you might buy in a store, and if you attempt much bigger loaves, it can be difficult to get the center cooked through without overbrowning the crust. Also, some advance meal planning is required. The authors suggest a resting period of several hours between oven and table, and there is the rising and baking time. So while this is mainly a hands off time, it does mean there are several hours from refrigerator to dinner table.

Overall, this is a valuable addition to my cookbook library. And I don’t buy many cookbooks anymore, because there are so many great resources available online. But I think that I will get their followup book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

[Linda Toms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Artisan Bread and this book is a winner. Question: Why is Jeff Hertzberg's name first and Zoe Francois sort of a byline author? Who wrote the book? Why not equal billing? Because he's an MD and she's a woman? Alphabetically, Francois comes before Hertzberg. Just saying.

[Sheila Bigelow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I. Love. This. Book. The end. Every recipe that I've tried is fantastic. Latest, is the Danish Braid. Sooo good.

[Robert Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m much more of a cook than I am a baker, but I’ve been trying recently to expand my abilities. I maintain a good sourdough starter and I enjoy baking from time to time. Each time, I seem to be getting just a bit better, but admittedly, especially with my busy schedule, it can be challenging to find time to bake as often as one would want. That’s where this book comes in. The authors have developed a technique involving advance presentation that allows one to bake a loaf of bread not in five minutes total, of course, but in just a few minutes of active work each day (and then add on however long it actually takes to bake, which varies a bit from recipe to recipe).

My recommended approach to this book is to read the whole thing cover to cover (at least skimming over all the recipes included) but then go back to the very beginning and start by mastering their first “master” recipe first. From there, you’ll be able to adapt to all the other recipes in the book once you’ve made whatever adjustments you might need to make to account for your own climate, your own brand of flour, or whatever other variables might affect your baking.

The thing that really impressed me as I started that project, though, was how easy that master recipe actually is. I’m not going to say my first loaf came out perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but following this book’s instructions yielded a pretty good loaf of bread even on a first attempt, and subsequent attempts have improved incrementally.

Perhaps the “five minutes a day” claim is a bit of an exaggeration. But even if it takes ten minutes of prep and maybe an hour or so total (including baking time), this is a much easier process than the constant stretching, kneading, and folding involved in many other recipes and is a true godsend for busy people like me. This might become my new go-to book for baking, both for the basic recipe and for the breadth of variations provided in later chapters.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting concept in bread making. Still trying out some recipes to see how they turn out.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope the recipes turn out well and everything goes as smoothly as the book makes it appear because I am definitely sold on the concept!

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

The cover and title suggest this is a sourdough recipe book. It's not. There are 9 pages at the end of the book about sourdough. Try purchasing another book.

[Gary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything one could ask for, if you wanted to bake your own bread. Very simple directions, explanations, and illustrations, photos. Rather inspiring.

[April Gray]

Lovers the variety and ease of reipes

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

some old favorites, some from all other books, some new ones.